When a wireless telecommunications system mobile station (“MS”) detects the presence of signals from a system technically compatible with the mobile station, the mobile station will attempt to register or make its presence known with the system. Industry standard specifications provide details of a typical registration process, such as the standards identified as 3GPP TS 23.122 and 3GPP TS 11.11, which are available from the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (“3GPP”), and others.
If the registration is denied, the mobile station will create a data entry in its subscriber identity module (“SIM”), also known as a subscriber identification module, indicating that the system is a forbidden public land mobile network (“FPLMN”). The mobile system then uses this entry, in the future, to avoid further registration attempts on such forbidden system(s). As described in the aforementioned industry standards, the forbidden public land mobile network list, if existing, is deleted when the mobile station is switched off or when the subscriber identity module is removed, thus permitting another, future attempt at registration with the formerly forbidden system.
For cell phones and other personal handheld devices, such resetting of the forbidden public land mobile network list on device power cycles offers advantages as the nature or reason for registration denial is fluid and may change. In other words, in some future registration, the mobile station may not be denied. For example, denial would no longer be appropriate if, in the interim, a roaming contract was enacted between the serving system and the mobile system's home system. Accordingly, conventional industry standard operations for dealing with forbidden public land mobile network data are suitable for many portable mobile stations that are subject to frequent power cycling or subscriber identity module removals, such as in a personal wireless telecommunications handset.
However, such conventional approaches can be detrimental for a mobile station integrated as the communications link for unmanned applications that may involve telemetry, asset tracking, device monitoring and other applications generally referred to in the industry's vernacular as “M2M” products, which stands for machine-to-machine. A typical mobile station used in a machine-to-machine application will not normally encounter frequent power cycles or subscriber identity module removals. Furthermore, since such machine-to-machine mobile station applications are typically unmanned and geographically dispersed, power cycling a mobile station in order to flush the forbidden public land mobile network list would typically involve a manned site visit. Such visits can be expensive and difficult.
Accordingly, conventional approaches that rely on current industry standards for managing forbidden public land mobile network lists are largely ill suited to machine-to-machine applications. The field lacks an affordable and efficient method of deleting forbidden public land mobile network data for mobile stations used in a machine-to-machine applications.
In view of the foregoing discussion of representative deficiency in the art, need is apparent for improved management of subscriber identify modules. Need exists for autonomous manipulation or deletion of forbidden public land mobile network data of a subscriber identity module. Need exists for a technology that can periodically delete forbidden public land mobile network data of a mobile station. Need exists for a capability to eliminate costly, in-person visits to mobile stations by a technician in order to delete forbidden public land mobile network data. Need exists for an automated capability to load a software program into a remote mobile station's subscriber identity module of a mobile station, for periodically deleting forbidden public land mobile network data of the mobile station. A capability addressing one or more such needs, or some related deficiency in the art, would promote machine-to-machine systems and applications as well as the general field of wireless communications.